October 9th to 14th 2012 at The Old Palace, Mayfield
Prize-winning poets from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, India.
Art exhibitions: Brian Whelan, Carolyn Trant, Johnny Marsh
Tuesday 9 Gillian Clarke reading 2.30 workshop midday
Thursday 11 Split Tongues: Three Irish (Joseph Horgan), Scots (W.S.Milne) and Indian (Sudeep Sen) poets read their poetry and discuss how it is to have two or more native languages 7.30pm
Friday 12 Mimi Khalvati reading 2.30 Workshop 6.30pm
Hearteners: Gill McEvoy, Abegail Morley and Sue Roe read their moving poems 8 to 9pm
Saturday 13 Four Shades of Translation: Timothy Adès, Susan Wicks, Josephine Balmer, Sian Thomas giving readings and discussing the ‘impossible art of translation’. Poets discussed include Catullus, Ovid, Resistance French sonnets, modern French poetry. 2-3.15pm
Poetry workshop: Fragments with Josephine Balmer 4-4.45pm
Getting Yourself into Print with editors Simon Jenner, John F. Deane, Sudeep Sen and Patricia McCarthy 6-7pm
Storm Houses: Tim Liardet and Peter Carpenter read their haunting poetry 8-9pm
Sunday 14 John F. Deane, revered Irish poet, founder of Poetry Ireland and the Dedalus Press, a Chevalier d’Honneur reads his poems in the ancient Chapel 2.30pm
Launch of Rodin’s Shadow by Patricia McCarthy (Patsy Cornish):
a dramatic reading of five voices 4pm
Accompanying art work: Johnny Marsh
Young Agenda Broadsheet Poets reading their poems 5.30pm
Grand finale: launch of ‘Celtic Mists’ issue of Agenda and drinks 7pm.
Refreshments and wine available at all events.
Stroller ticket for all events (except workshops) £20 Other events £5 each; Gillian Clarke’s and Mimi Khalvati’s workshops £20 with lunch/supper; Jo Balmer’s workshop £10
Spaces only for 10-14 people in the workshops. Special prices on day/evening events.
Contacts: Tel 01435 874600 for tickets; 01435 873703 for further details or email [email protected] for further information, tickets and times.
At the Festival, Patricia McCarthy will launch
Rodin’s Shadow(Clutag Press/Agenda Editions) written
in the voices of Rodin’s mistresses, Camille Claudel, Gwen John, of Rose Beuret, his long-standing semi-literate companion, and of Debussy.
‘This collection is truly moving. The poems are energetic, exciting, demanding and rewarding. Patricia McCarthy is doing something unique here, using persona and art history to great effect. There is an energy to the language, and a half-wild experimentation that is uplifting and yet controlled. The shifting between rhyme and free verse is also exact and exacting. There is a fine labour manifest throughout and I find the whole a rich achievement’,
John Deane, poet and founder of Poetry Ireland
Copies will be available to purchase at the Festival, and also at the Agenda online bookshop
In the Festival event Split Tongues, Joseph Horgan will be reading from his new collection, An Unscheduled Life (Agenda Editions 2012) about the London-Irish: what it means to be both an exile and an immigrant, accompanied by
artwork by Brian Whelan which will also be exhibited.
‘…In the contemporary reality we need poets who will sing homelessness and rootlessness’.
Paula Meehan
‘Brian – keep the brush in your hand!’
Seamus Heaney
‘This is vey strong art; not for aesthetic wimps’.
Sister Wendy Beckett, art historian and critic
Copies available at the Festival and also at the Agenda online bookshop.
Split Tongues will also feature Omar Sabbagh, the British/Lebanese poet, who will also be reading from his latest collection, Waxed Mahogany (Agenda Editions, 2012).
Omar Sabbagh demonstrates in this new collection how he has grown into his Arabic/English voice, and found his place in its archetypal, instinctive reaches. His ear is finely tuned in these deft, incisive poems that shift between home and exile, love and death. Each poem flows all of a piece, carrying its own alchemy, eroticism, and startling imagery, along with feeling thoughts, and thinking feelings. Clever conceits, word play and large scope combine in this haunting, metaphysical, excitingly original collection.
Copies available at the Festival and also at the Agenda online bookshop
Put these Festival dates in your diary if you are within striking distance of Mayfield, East Sussex, an ancient hill-top village with beautiful views and an eleventh century chapel, the former banqueting hall of the Archbishops of Canterbury.
Stay in a local inn such as the historic Middle House in the High Street, or at B&Bs in the locality or in Tunbridge Wells which is only 10 minutes away. Have lunch/a drink in the charming pub, The Rose & Crown, Fletching Street or in the Carpenters Arms. Sample home-cooked food and coffee in Jason’s Coffee House, High Street. Visit The Dark Horse Art Gallery, also in the High Street.